Cauley Woodrow was back on relatively familiar ground on Monday, when he scored again at the Stade de Lattre in Aubagne.
The Fulham striker bagged two goals in England Under-21s’ 7-1 rout of Guinea in the Toulon Tournament, almost exactly two years on from scoring against South Korea at the same venue.
And it could have been a hat-trick for the 21-year-old, who saw a second-half shot saved by the Guinean keeper before bouncing off a defender and into the goal to make it 5-1, prior to his own strikes completing the scoreline.
England 7-1 Guinea
Toulon Tournament
Monday 23 May 2016
Stade de Lattre, Aubagne
Live on BT Sport
"I’ll claim the own goal as well," he laughed after the game.
"I’m only joking, it was an own goal and I had to wait until the second half for my goals, but I was pleased when they came.
"It’s nice to come back and score again in a tournament which I played in two years ago."
Woodrow and his team-mates had to show their character though, after falling behind with less than a minute on the clock.
That setback didn’t knock the Three Lions out of their stride too much though, as a Jack Grealish double, a James Ward-Prowse penalty and a stunning shot from Nathan Redmond made it 4-1 at half time before Woodrow did the damage after the break.
"The first couple of minutes were terrible, we didn’t start well at all and the manager made us aware of that at half time," admitted the former Luton Town youngster.
"But we showed our character to get back into the game pretty quickly and managed to score some goals in the first half to get us out of trouble.
"They were great goals too, especially Redders with a great strike from about 30 yards and we just showed a great mentality to come back from 1-0 down."
🎥 Under-21s and @FulhamFC striker @CauleyWoodrow chats to FATV after his brace in the 7-1 win over Guinea. https://t.co/n5Zf4fKmks
— England (@England) May 23, 2016
Monday’s game was the start of a busy week for Gareth Southgate’s side, who now face Paraguay on Wednesday before the final Group B game against Japan on Friday.
With the potential of another game on Sunday, should England qualify from the group, it’s a case of the squad being managed through the week.
And with all 20 members of the group having now started a game each in the first two fixtures, Woodrow believes they’re doing as much as they can to be fresh for Wednesday’s clash with the South Americans.
"For the lads who have played the majority of the game, we’ll be recovering tomorrow [Tuesday] and the lads who haven’t played will be training,” he explained.
"But everyone will be ready for the next game and hopefully we can keep the good run going and make sure we’re qualified for the Final before the last game."
